PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — Like every manager, Joe Maddon gives his team a speech to kick off the first official workout of spring training. But you can be sure Maddon’s opening remarks are not like most managers’.

Here is, for example, how he told the Rays he wants them to dress. “If you think you look hot, it’s good. That’s my dress code.”

Joe Maddon has led the Rays to 90 or more wins four of the past five seasons. (AP Photo)

If that means slacks and collared shirts, fine, even if Maddon believes such a look is “archaic when it comes to fashion today.” Now jeans and T-shirts? That’s more his style. “That’s universality,” Maddon says. “That will always be appropriate.”

You might say having such a laid-back dress code has nothing to do with winning and losing baseball games. But you’d be wrong, at least in the case of the Rays. The lack of a dress code really is a larger reflection of Maddon’s managing style.

Which is, says Rays second infielder Ryan Roberts: “Whatever you need to do to excel, that’s what he wants you to do. If you want to wear your hat (to the side), he doesn’t give a (blank). That was exactly his speech.”

While some teams order their players to be on the field 25 minutes before games, Maddon gives his players the freedom to wait until the national anthem. While some teams might order their players to hit the weight room before batting practice, Maddon lets his players decide when and how much they need to loosen up.

“The way he sees it, if you don’t get your work done, it will be exposed on the field,” Roberts says. “He says it’s not going to get exposed because I watch it. That is what attracted me most to this team. Everybody in here can be their own person. They can do what they want as long as they play the game hard. In baseball, there are too many things that go into a season that are stressful. Here you have no added stress.”

Maddon’s way isn’t the only one to work but you can’t deny that he has been successful. Though the Rays operate with one of the game’s smallest payrolls, they have won more games than every team except the Yankees and Phillies over the past five years.

That the Rays have been at their best down the stretch is not a coincidence, either. “That’s crunch time, when the booty hole gets this small,” says Roberts, forming a circle with his fingers smaller than a dime. “Here’s it’s throttled the opposite way. The bigger the game, the more relaxed he wants you. You tell me what works.”

For 2013, Maddon’s overall message is essentially the same as most years and not that different from what most managers will say. Focus on the process. “It’s simple but it’s overlooked,” Maddon said.

But not many managers tell their players that he expects them to make “a lot of physical mistakes.”

“The thing I really want to eradicate are the mental mistakes,” Maddon said. “That’s what controls wins and losses. I want them to know we’re going to be very tolerant with physical mistakes.”

Outfielder Matt Joyce had a front-row seat for his fourth Maddon spring speech on Sunday. While Joyce has heard the same message before, he appreciated this delivery.

“His big thing was magic,” Joyce said. “The championship teams have a lot of magical moments. In 2008 (when they reached the World Series), the Rays had magical moments. He wants us to have those magical moments. Instilling the thought that we have the capability to do so to where we expect those moments to come, they’re only more likely to come.”

Magic moments, of course, are more likely when you have talented players. To that end, general manager Andrew Friedman used his part of the team meeting to tell his players that this could be the most talented Rays yet. “And I can’t disagree with that,” Maddon said.

Well, I can. The Rays lost a lot with the departures of James Shields, B.J. Upton, Carlos Pena and Wade Davis. While they still will be led by one of the game’s top pitching staffs and strong defense, they didn’t bring in much to help their sub-par offense, with attitude-challenged shortstop Yunel Escobar and light-hitting first baseman James Loney the only newcomers expected in the opening-day lineup.

Maddon isn’t the only manager to harp on process and belief as camps have opened across the majors in the past week. But he says he saw the look in his players’ eyes that he wanted.

“They were listening and were focused and they got it,” he said. “They always get it.”

Indeed. Maddon’s methods seem to be working, no matter how they dress.